The San Diego River Park Foundation is dedicated to fostering stewardship and appreciation of the San Diego River, our region’s namesake waterway. In order to protect and enhance the San Diego River as a place for recreation, habitat, and nature discovery, we are dedicated to engaging people to be stewards of the River and working towards the vision of a 52 mile, river-long system of parks, open spaces, and community places. High quality outdoor spaces like the San Diego River Park and Trail system increase the economic value of the community, and access to the outdoors and nature increases social, psychological, physical and mental health of the community members its serves.
The San Diego River Park Foundation’s programs provide opportunities for the community to develop and strengthen connections to the San Diego River through recreation, education, advocacy and stewardship. The organization is active throughout the San Diego River watershed, especially in San Diego, Santee, El Cajon, Alpine, Descanso and Julian.
Each year, the organization hosts hundreds of community events, including annual events like San Diego River Days and River Kids Discovery Days, volunteer events such as gardening, trail building, and clean-ups, and citizen science monitoring events to record water quality and wildlife movement. The San Diego River Park Foundation mobilizes the community to permanently conserve critical parcels of land in the upper watershed through acquisition. In addition, the organization provides free, site-based science education for over thousands of students each year through the Cool River Program. The education and volunteer programs will be based out of the Discovery Center at Grant Park, a planned nature and education hub (currently under construction).
